Chan Kean Yap, 30, a Malaysian, was fined $4,000 on Wednesday (June 3) for leaving his adopted dog in a filthy cage and starving him to a near death condition. The dog was found in the cage littered with his own excrement. For this he was also banned from owning pets for a year.
Chan pleaded guilty to one charge under the Animals and Birds Act of failing to ensure that his pet, an English Bulldog, had adequate and suitable food and water.
A second charge of keeping the dog at a fish farm without a licence was taken into consideration.
Chan, a permanent resident, adopted the dog and kept in a fish farm where he worked. He stopped working there in May. Two months later, an NParks officers found the dog at the farm which was located at 221 Neo Tiew Crescent when it heard it whining.
A thorough examination done found that the dog scored one out of nine in a body condition scale, the lowest next to death. Its ribs, spine and bones were prominent from a distance, with no discernible body fat and with obvious loss of muscle mass, likely due to severely inadequate feeding or underlying chronic illness.
“If not for the discovery by the inspecting officer, the said dog might have died as a result if it was left untreated at the premises,” said the prosecutor.Â
For not giving the dog adequate food and water, Chan could have been jailed for up to a year, fined up to S$10,000, or both.